Van Gogh Museum

A must - you would say when in Amsterdam. I'm not the most motivated museum goer and Van Gogh is not my most revered painter. Having said that, we felt it was de rigeuer...
The first hurdle of getting tickets is easily overcome by buying them online. You can even choose a specific hour of the day you'd like to be admitted. How whole families with little children queue outside, rain or shine, beats me if there is an easier way.
Spoiler alert: Most of his hardhitters, the most famous pictures were not there!

Sunflowers yes, Starry nights, THE self-portrait: NO! They are in NY or in another museum in a different part of the world.
Every hour they let in about 100 people who then move slowly past the pictures on 3 floors. The audio guide, however, only comments on about 9 pictures out of the 30 or more on the ground floor. We saw 3 other self-portraits by the master himself which were not honored by any explanation. How many did he draw?
If you're interested more in his artistic development and have techniques explained, then you won't be disappointed.
Friday night, unfortunately, was also the time for musical entertainment for the visitors.The group was substandard- sorry, but loud. So loud in fact, we had to give up on our audio guide system.
I liked the museum shop best. A very tasteful collection of many different touristy, even useful gifts arranged according to the predominant colors Van Gogh used: yellow bags, red purses, blue ipad cased for example.
Another area for improvement is the locker room / hand in your coats etc.. Two lonely if busy bees tried to efficiently handle the crowds. From one line to the next: Security check point afterwards. If some bad guy wanted to do harm, he can easily hand in his bomb with his backpack in the locker room and not try to bring it through the scanners.
As the whole outing cost a bomb, I admit we were disappointed.
This picture was obviously taken on another day as it has practically no visitors and photography is forbidden!

It's bucketing

Just like in Ireland.Well, all the good rain comes from the west via Ireland most of he time.Saturday we had set out on a bicycle tour only to abandon the bikes at a metro station and head back home after waiting under a bridge for the rain to stop for about an hour. Then we gave  up. We don't have the gear - plastic ponchos- the Dutch have; most others don't seem to mind. They just zip along on the cycle lanes, around cars, among foot passengers, over crossings, red lights or not.Yet, we never saw an accident.. They seem to have the right of way, most not even wearing helmets. I posted the funniest contraptions last year.Here's another gem with room for two kids:

Sunday turned out a beautiful day and we set out to retrieve the bikes. From there we pedaled liked two true locals to a park in the city center where the big museums are: Vondelpark. Although everybody , young and old, was out in force, on foot, skateboards, bikes, lying on the grass, we didn't see any fondling. It must mean something else..:). In fact, it was named after the 17th century writer Joost van den Vondel. Not used to arduous biking, I hate to admit our derrieres were overwrought. We left the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum for another day, a rainy day we said.

But today's deluge was so heavy, we just hunkered down. There is washing to do, cooking and other menial things when you swap homes. You live just like at home, at least the chores are similar. It's not like being in a hotel. Actaully, I consider that one of the few downsides of homeswapping.

Now the sun is out, it's lovely again and we're going to procure some groceries so that we don't starve .

Maybe a little bike ride around the lake that is opposite our house,  seen on the right at sunset.

A Sad Day to Arrive

We arrived in the suburbs of Amsterdam on a glorious sunny day. Our exchnage partner were grounded at Schiphol airport for hours because the first flights from Ukraine arrived.I hope they didn't see the unloading of the coffins the way it was televised later for hours.
We were so grateful that we didn't have to fly over a civil war area! If not even the airspace is safe anymore for civil aircraft-- what is the world coming to?

We're about 7 km from the city center. The house is beautiful,an old railway house renovated a few years ago. Very modern inside, with  a huge kitchen cum dining room, a high-tech German kitchen (Miele) and all its appliances. The coffeemaker is almost too modern, built in and high maintenance as we already found out.

The sink has an extra spout for boiling water.Yes, that's how we made tea and coffee (we always travel with a little filter and filter bags).
The back yard is fully enclosed and shielded from view  by a wall overgrown with ivy. The whole place is ideal for parties.

 

The good weather lasted for 2 days all the while we were checking out appliances, shopping for food, trying to get the TV and PCs to work and unpack. We also got a nice bike ride in. We should have dropped everything there and then and make use of the heat and sun and drive to the beach, Sunny days never last long in these parts of the world. Our planned bike ride into Amsterdam fell into water...(German expression). We got soaked and returned home.Now it is sunny again....Ain't that just the way ?
On TV live footage of arriving planes and corteges through the city of dozens and dozens of hearses continue, the streets filled with mourners.

Next: Off to the south odf Germany

Some more info about the seaside of Holland where we spent a sunny weekend. Just up the road from Haarlem that I reported on before lies Zandfort. Some Dutch do the distance on their bikes (10miles or so).
The town of Zandvoort was already popular with German tourists when I was a child.

 

Imagine, this water came all the way from the States! And the coastline doesn't look too different from anywhere in NJ or even the German North Sea cost. What does look different is the type of vacation homes they built right on the beach.

On to new and better pastures...the Stuttgart area, one of out favorite spots in Germany, is about 600km or an 8 hour drive away depending on the traffic. See you there!

These Globetrotters Visit Haarlem

Haarlem, a little town about 20km north of Amsterdam is one of the cutest, medieval scenic towns I’ve ever seen. (Population is ca. 150,000). If you know Brugges In Belgium, Haarlem can well compete with it. Haarlem has a rich history dating back to pre-medieval times. The part of New York that goes by the same name was founded by Dutch immigrants in the16 hundreds and has about 60,000 more inhabitants. We had visited Amsterdam several times before and opted for Haarlem as our first outing.

During the night we had slept through a Code Orange as we learned from an anxious email from our exchange partners. Well, there had been some storm and lightning, but it hadn’t rocked the boat too much. There was only the tiniest of movements on the waterline if you looked really hard. It was a little cooler and less muggy, however.

The old city center is a gem with narrow streets and brick and timber framed houses, all well-maintained as if they had sprung from a story book. And the ever present fiets milling about in the tiniest of alley ways. Just like they have car parks, Dutch towns have parking garages for their fiets.

The main square The Grote Markt with its impressive church The Grote Kerk is the center of touristic activity and well worth a visit. But try to find your way into the smaller, older quarters where the Nieuwe Kerk is. That’s where you find the real old Dutch architecture and atmosphere. A big open air market where the locals shop from cheese, to fish and bread also has cafes that invite you to take a break - maybe over a koffie and appletaart met slagroom or a Grolsch?

What I hadn't expected in these quaint quarters was a red light establishment right next to the new church.Hard to believe! See pic on the right!